New English language learning method to be introduced

March 20, 2017

PUTRAJAYA, Mar 20: A new English Language teaching and learning method via online, the Cambridge Accessible Tests (CATs), will be introduced with the focus on rural students.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said this pioneer programme would start by the year-end involving about 40 rural primary and secondary schools and expected to be implemented fully in one or two years.

He said the programme was developed with the cooperation of Cambridge Malaysia Education and Development Trust (CMEDT), and a working committee headed by Education director-general Tan Sri Dr Khair Mohamed Yusof would be formed to monitor the implementation of CATs.

“I think this is a very good programme for students, especially those in the rural areas who are less exposed to the English language,” he told a press conference after an explanation session on the English Language Education Implementation Strategy Towards Students’ Proficiency, here, today.

Mahdzir said the CATs design was developed by CMEDT and ready for use. In fact, he added, English Language teachers had been trained at the English Language Training Centre (ELTC), Education Ministry, to implement the programme.

Meanwhile, ELTC director Dr Mohamed Abu Bakar said CATs functioned as an additional English Language teaching and learning method involving nine levels of mastery at the primary and secondary school levels.

“Students’ English Language proficiency will be tested from one level to another and if they can master all the nine levels, that means their proficiency is very good.

“When students have completed the nine levels of learning in primary school, they will start again from the first level in secondary school,” he said.

He added that the implementation of CATs could raise the number of students passing the English Language in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination from 79.4 per cent in 2016 to the targeted 81 per cent by 2020. — Bernama